Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake
Charles Wesley (17071788)Easter Hymn
C
Sons of men and angels say:
Raise your joys and triumphs high,
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.
Fought the fight, the battle won:
Lo! our Sun’s eclipse is o’er;
Lo! He sets in blood no more.
Christ hath burst the gates of hell!
Death in vain forbids His rise;
Christ hath opened Paradise!
Where, O Death, is now thy sting?
Once He died, our souls to save:
Where thy victory, O Grave?
Following our exalted Head;
Made like Him, like Him we rise:
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.
Partners in our parents’ fall?
Second life we all receive,
In our Heavenly Adam live.
Still we seek the things above;
Still pursue, and kiss the Son
Seated on His Father’s Throne.
Dead to all we leave below;
Heav’n our aim, and loved abode,
Hid our life with Christ in God:
Glorious in His members here;
Join’d to Him, we then shall shine,
All immortal, all divine.
Praise to Thee by both be given!
Thee we greet triumphant now!
Hail, the Resurrection Thou!
Everlasting life is this,
Thee to know, Thy power to prove,
Thus to sing, and thus to love!